Tinderbox

In the vital U.S. aircraft industry, whose rapid growth has made it a tinderbox, primed for labor trouble, a small flare-up last week illuminated dangers ahead. In Middle River, Md., C.I.O. workers in the huge Glenn L. Martin Co. plant walked out, called a strike. In spite of the strike call, most of the employes (members of a union which C.I.O. leaders said was company-dominated) stayed on, disregarding a skimpy picket line.

In most of the industry were piled up all the combustible elements for a fiery outburst. Less than half the nation's 200,000 military aircraft workers have been organized. As rival A.F. of L., C.I.O., and independents moved in, started membership drives, jurisdictional strikes set off sparks. Most inflammable spot this week was at Boeing Aircraft Co., in Seattle, Wash. There an A.F. of L. union, scabby with Communism, had expelled a leftist group, who resentfully switched their affiliations to C.I.O. Whether C.I.O. would take them in, make them the spearhead of a drive on Boeing, remained to be seen. Conservative West Coast C.I.O. leaders were against the idea, radical C.I.O.ers were all for it.

Just as combustible was the problem of wages. The industry had moved into suddenly prosperous days. Plants hummed with work on $4,029,700,000 of Government contracts; workers wanted their share of the new plenty. Average hourly wage in the industry was estimated at 77.6-c-, appreciably below the average wage in the automobile industry (96.6-c-). According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, average annual earnings (1940) in aircraft were $1,600, compared to $1,850 in automobiles.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.